


My Moment

by Clockwork_Sky (failsafe)



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Episode Related, Episode Tag, Episode: s04e18 The End of Time Pt2, Extended Scene, Gen, M/M, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-04
Updated: 2010-01-04
Packaged: 2017-10-10 20:01:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/103730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/failsafe/pseuds/Clockwork_Sky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Master's thoughts as he makes a decision--the decision--in The End of Time (4x18).</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Moment

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't really intended to be "slash" or "not-slash". This was sort of my catharsis when I was reeling after the episode and had just begun to see the Master as a sympathetic character. I've since come to ship Doctor/Master as one of my more prominent ships as a multishipper, but this fic didn't have one stance or another in mind on that matter. This was a very face-value what-it-says-on-the-tin outpouring of thoughts, but I was rather happy with it at the time.

"Get out of the way."

A plea.

A battle cry.

A moment.

That's what the Time Lord lives for—a moment.

And this was the Master's moment.

His moment of glory, his moment of splendor.

_Would it stop then? The noise in my head?_

The drums, the drums, the never ending drums.

Louder, louder, louder.

Always louder.

But now the drums were more than a noise, more than a call.

They were real.

And the Master would destroy them forever.

The Doctor, always the Doctor. It had never been anyone except him—it never had been, never would be, never could be, anyone except him. The Doctor had always been the one taking all the credit for everything they had done across the stars—together.

_"We could travel the stars. It would be my honour."_

_But we did travel the stars, didn't we, Doctor?_ the Master thought as he sat on his knees, staring at the floor. All across the stars, all across time, throughout the millennia they had traveled, fought, torn one another apart. All leading up to here, to now, to this _moment_.

The Master's eyes—brown this time, the last time—darted up toward the Doctor, ran up the line of his body, past him and to the President, to Rassilon.

"You'll die with me, Doctor!"

"I know."

The Master then realized that this was the moment. The Moment he had been chasing after all these years. The Doctor had promised that he could help, he had promised that he would help him find it—that noise, the never ending, never ceasing, never dying noise. The drumbeat, the Doctor said they would find the drumbeat, and here it was. The soldier's march, the heartbeat.

This was HIS Moment.

The Master could feel the burning, feel the dying inside his body. It burned, it ached, and the hunger would never, ever cease.

But no more.

Gathering his strength into his limbs, his arms, his legs, the Master rose to his feet in a smooth motion.

This would be the Moment.

This would be spectacular.

This would be...

_"...beautiful."_

"Get out of the way."

The Doctor's eyes met his one more time, but he didn't look back, only past.

Only toward Rassilon—only toward his final moment of glory.

Life flowed through his fingers, out of his hands, and into the President.

Life, the ultimate destroyer.

There was one thing the Doctor had never understood about life—or perhaps he did.

Life was the destroyer of everything.

There had been a Time when the Master had not known the drums. Life had taken that away.

There had been a Time when the Doctor had not been running away. Life had taken that away.

There had been a Time when the Master had not been chasing after. Life had taken that away.

There had been a Time when every moment, every breath, every beat of each of his hearts, had not been leading up to this. And Life had finally, ultimately, managed to take everything away.

Everything except the Moment.

"You did this to me! All of my life! You made me! One! Two! Three! Four!"

The Final Beating of the Drums.

Everything faded to white. Bright, white light.

The Master had never expected to see a bright, white light at the end of his life, at the end of his reign of the Wastes.

The Master had only ever managed to expect what came after, the Hell that was to come, never knowing of the glory he was to achieve.

But as Life, the world above, faded back to the nothing it had always been, the Master harboured no regrets.

Now there was no looking back, no turning away, no more never dying.

No more need to say goodbye.

He had said all he had needed to say, and for once the Doctor had _listened_.

No more need to say goodbye.

Only the need for the five words he had said:

_Get out of the way..._

And the one he had not:

_...Doctor._

**Author's Note:**

> About the u's in certain words where they wouldn't normally be in American English: I am an American, but in British fandoms I'm in, I do try to use the British English spellings, not out of any desire to be pretentious, but because it only looks right that way, to me.


End file.
